Atletico Madrid are interested in signing Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette to replace Barcelona-bound Antoine Griezmann.
The Gunners are battling to hold onto Griezmann's fellow France international Lacazette and strike partner Pierre Emerick Aubameyang this summer, with interest in both men following their failure to return to the Champions League for next season.
Arsenal failed to finish in the Premier League’s top four last season, missing out by one point after winning just once in their last five matches, and were crushed by London rivals Chelsea in the Europa League final, their other route back into the elite competition.
Atletico boss Diego Simeone is going to need a top player to replace Griezmann's many goals and would be able to offer 27-year-old Lacazette a return to Champions League football.
Lacazette scored 13 times in the Premier League last season and provided eight assists. With five more goals in the Europa League, the former Lyon marksman played a key role in their run to Baku.
Elsewhere, Crystal Palace are determined not to sell Wilfried Zaha to Arsenal.
Palace's top brass are fuming because they believe the Gunners have deliberately set out to unsettle Ivory Coast winger Zaha and try to get him to force through a move.
Arsenal’s first approach, of around £40million, got dismissed out of hand and, while they are expected to go back with a better offer and potentially a deal involving players, that will also get short shrift.
Palace are under no pressure to sell Zaha.
They value the 26-year-old at £80m and there's the added complication of them having to pay Manchester United 25 per cent of any profit from the £6m deal which took him back to Selhurst Park in 2015 after two unhappy years on the Old Trafford books.
Arsenal could offer Carl Jenkinson as one of at least two players in part exchange as the right-back played for England under now-Palace boss Roy Hodgson.
